Åmsele-Murderer Released from Prison in Finland

A Finnish man who was serving life imprisonment for a triple murder committed in Sweden in 1988 was released early monday morning after being granted a pardon.

Nikita Fouganthine, previously known as Juha Valjakkala, murdered three members of the same family in Åmsele, in the north of Sweden, and has served 20 years in prison.

On several occasions he has petitioned the Finnish president for a pardon, only to be denied. However, after a change in the penal law in Finland in 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in December to pardon him.